History

Bobby Mardis owner, ceo

How did Bobby Mardis evolve to where he is today?

Bobby Mardis comes from the streets of Hammond Indiana where he was raise.

Bobby Mardis was raised in the Midwest, specifically Hammond Indiana. At ten, he watched a halftime overview clip of UCLA during a basketball game in the cold of the winter. He saw bikini’s and beach as he immediately set his eyes on going to college in California. When his mother got an opportunity to acquire a job in Southern Calif for a stint of time. Bobby was still young, but even at a young age he was clearly interested in the entertainment profession. They moved to the Bay Area where he attended San Mateo High and sports took over his life for a while with football, basketball, wrestling and track. He got involved in drama as well as making 16mm shorts in his spare time. He finally focused in on his three passions, which were track, drama and filmmaking.

One day his dream as a child came true. He got his acceptance letter to UCLA and was officially a Southern Californian. He ran the 400-meter hurdles for UCLA and took acting courses as he completed in degree in communications. He eventually went to U.S.C. to try and attend film school but couldn’t get in so he defaulted to Advertising. After graduating he went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and while in school, he wrote a comedy routine and was headed for the clubs around Los Angeles. His favorites were the Comedy Store on Sunset and Westwood, along with the Improv on Melrose. To make any significant money, you had to travel outside of the city where comedians were not a dime a dozen. He created many liaisons including Robert Townsend and Keenen Ivory Wayans.

He was soon asked to join the cast of the iconic film, “Hollywood Shuffle” which opened the doors to more Hollywood opportunities. Bobby’s friendship grew with Robert as he continued with “Robert Townsend and his Partner’s in Crime,” and “The Five Heartbeats.” Bobby took every dime that he had saved and started his own production called “Why Colors” starring, “Vanessa Bell Calloway” “Regina King,” “Barry White” “Ice T” “Flavor Flav” and a host of other notables.

One of Robert’s prized productions was the series for HBO, “The Bold The Black, The Beautiful” where Bobby played Robert’s identical twin brother. You are right, they look nothing alike, but that was the joke. Keenen was also busy at the end of the block with projects up his sleeve. He offered Bobby the part of Overgold, “The guy who died of wearing too much Gold” in “I’m Gonna Git You sucka”. Bobby was booking guest parts in shows like, “What’s Happening Now,” Sonny Spoon” “House Party” “Rocky IV” and numerous other film. In his spare time, he started singing and performing in nightclubs. There were many nights that he would perform stand-up in clubs and then turn around and change clothes out of the trunk of his car and go to another club and go the singing club circuit.

Bobby Mardis comes from the streets of Hammond Indiana where he was raise.

He eventually started recording music and landed a record deal with SONY (Sound of New York) and then with Profile Records where he released “Keep On” written by Kashif. Kashif was hot on the scene having produced Evelyn Champagne King, Alexander O’Neil, Howard Johnson. Bobby’s song made the billboard charts with a bullet. He moved up his performing stages and landed at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas. The song hit in Europe and many DJ’s used the song in mixes to boost Bobby’s career. Although loved performing stand-up and singing. He wanted to perfect his script writing skills to eventually tackle and make a name for himself in his silver screen ventures. He stayed independent for a while until landing a job writing his project “Less than 10” for A&M Films. When Polygram purchased A&M all films where wiped off the slate and he found himself on the grind again. Bobby has received many awards for his films in various film festivals around the world. His made-for-television comedy entitled, “Midnight Blue,” achieved the highest ratings in the series of B.E.T.’s Arabesque slate of projects. He has expanded his artistic reach to write and direct the thriller, “One Last Time” for the straight-to-video market.

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Bobby Mardis, along with Stan Foster, produced a comedy pilot for Comedy Central called, “In the Cut.” He directed the hilarious Latin sitcom pilot entitled, “X & L Customs” which raised eyebrows in the pilot arena. He has directed multi-camera comedy concerts that include, “Against All Odds” starring TK Kirkland for Image Entertainment; a gospel comedy called “Shout” featuring Mark Christopher Lawrence and the uproarious “I Got Problems” for Avatar Productions, which was highly successful while on the video rental circuit. One of Bobby’s socially conscious projects is the concert film “The Silence is Broken” which was made as a benefit, featuring a sixty-piece orchestra and a myriad of musical stars who donated their time, energy and talent for AIDS prevention. This project is currently being streamed on thesilenceisbroken.org. Along the same socially conscience vein, he completed many music videos, including “Peace on the Streets” to help bring light to the violence on the streets epidemic. This project features TC Carson, Loretta Divine, and a host of 65 musicians in the Patrick Gandy Orchestra. Eleven cameras captured the spirit that touched the lives of many individuals affected with AIDS.

Bobby produced the underground music documentary, “Beats by the Bay.” This project is about the independent hip-hop and rap scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. It features MC Hammer, Too Short, E-40 and 80 other Bay Rappers. His film, “Keeping the Faith,” spotlighted the faith-based organizations that helped the gulf coast citizens during one of the most disastrous hurricanes in American history, Hurricane Katrina. The film also features close to one hundred celebrities who gave heartfelt words of inspiration to the people who were washed away from their homes. Los Angeles’ Bishop Charles Blake did an appearance wish the Gulf Coast citizens his blessing along with many other stars and celebrities.

One of Bobby’s pet projects is entitled, “Passing the Torch.” It’s a riveting jazz project illustrating the tradition of passing down the art form of jazz from one generation to the next. He has captured over 200 legendary jazz musicians from all over the world in various venues summarizing their stories. The list of incredible talent includes: Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Lionel Hampton, Nancy Wilson, Stanley Turentine, Illinois Jacquet, Arturo Sandoval, Winton Marsalis, and Grover Washington, Jr., just to name a few. This project is a twenty-year, labor of love that will give jazz enthusiasts a closer insight of the inter-workings of the jazz mind, as it enlightens a new generation of music lovers. Relationships and connections because the center of Bobby’s longevity in the business. After acting in “The Five Heartbeats” with Robert Townsend, he because friends with the producer, Loretha Jones, an executive at BET, later gave him the job producing five commercials for Hallmark featuring Maya Angelou.

Bobby uses his ingenuity to raise funds for his pet projects by shooting electronic press kits (EPKs), commercials, music videos and industrial projects. He has conducted over 1000 interviews on various subject matters across the board. As an editor, he has cut a variety of projects from industrial films to infomercials. His “Sun West Mortgage” reverse-mortgage infomercial could be found in ten thousand banks across the U.S. In his entertainment travels, he takes moments out to learn from the greats with brief conversations that will eventually make it to a book called, “Quest for the Inner Circle.”

Every project that Bobby writes, shoots, edits, produces, or directs becomes of piece of his soul as he puts his “all” into the journey. Bobby is a DGA director and WGA writer to fill his well rounded experience with all of his SAG / AFTRA activities.

The next journey he will embark upon includes a slate of 6 feature films that will be used to help nonprofits and victims of trafficking. He is also in development of “Bot Girl” a comedy about a female robot that come between his marriage and his sanity.